President Donald Trump claimed he was one of the top candidates for TIME magazine's "Person of the Year", but made a decision to pass on the opportunity because of certain obligations.

But Trump said he declined because "probably" wasn't good enough.

President Trump claimed on Twitter earlier tonight that he rejected an interview and photo shoot from Time Magazine for their TIME's Person of the Year issue. "But I'm sure you still have that fake TIME cover somewhere in storage".

TIMErecently defined its "Person of the Year" as "a person (or people) who has had the most influence over the news in the last 12 months".

"FYI, this sounds like part of the normal Person of the Year production process", journalist Brian Stelter tweeted Friday.

"They used to call it "Man of the Year" but they can't do that anymore so they call it person - they want to be politically correct, that's OK", he said at a rally in Iowa.

But Trump didn't mention that in his tweet, instead hinting that interviews are a waste of time. Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, led Trump by 16 percent. Trump comes in at a distant second at 5%, at a tie with The Dreamers and #MeToo.

Using his favorite means of communication, Trump said he turned down the honor because Time Magazine didn't fully commit.